On a septic system in Lehigh Acres or Alva? The basics every owner should know

Much of Lehigh Acres, Alva, Buckingham, and the eastern edge of Lee County never got sewer lines. If your home is out there, the wastewater goes to a tank in your yard and then into the ground, and everything about how the household uses water affects how long that system lasts. Most owners inherit the system with the house and no instructions. These are the instructions.

How a tank and drain field work

Everything from the house flows by gravity through a single drain line to a buried tank, usually concrete, sometimes fiberglass or plastic, and usually 10 to 20 feet from the house. Inside, solids sink to the bottom as sludge and fats float to the top as scum. The liquid in between leaves through an outlet baffle to the drain field: rows of perforated pipe in gravel or plastic chambers in trenches, where the soil finishes the treatment. Bacteria in the tank digest some of the solids. The rest accumulate and have to be pumped out.

Because the water table here is close to the surface, many local systems have a raised mound for the drain field and a pump chamber that lifts the liquid up to it. If yours has a pump, it has an alarm; learn what it sounds like before it goes off. A septic home is almost always on a private well too, and the two are kept apart by a required distance for a reason.

Pumping: how often and why

Sludge and scum build until they reach the outlet baffle. When they carry over into the drain field, they clog the soil, and the drain field is the expensive part of the system. Pumping before that happens is the whole game. A common rule of thumb is every three to five years for a household of four with a standard tank; sooner with a disposal, more people, or a small tank. Keep the receipt; when you sell, the buyer asks.

Pumping is also the inspection: the hauler checks the baffles, looks for cracks, and can tell you whether the field is accepting water. Additives sold to postpone pumping do not.

What never goes down the drain

• Wipes, feminine products, paper towels, floss, and cat litter. They do not break down. They fill the tank and can carry into the field.
• Grease and cooking oil. They float into the scum layer, harden, and clog the outlet.
• Chemical drain cleaners, paint, solvents, and large doses of bleach. They kill the bacteria the tank runs on.
• Medications. They go to the drain field and the groundwater, which in this area is also your well. Pharmacies have take-back bins.
• Food scraps through a disposal. Ground food is slow for the bacteria, so sludge builds faster and pumping comes sooner. Some tanks are sized for a disposal; many older ones are not. Scrape plates into the trash and use the disposal for what slips past.

Water use, guests, and the summer rain

The tank has a fixed volume, and every gallon that goes in pushes a gallon out to the field. The field can absorb only so much in a day. Spikes overwhelm it: five loads of laundry on a Saturday, a houseful of seasonal guests in a home built for two, or a toilet that has been running unnoticed for a week, which can put more water through the field in a few days than the family does in a month. Spread laundry across the week and fix running toilets the day you notice them.

The rainy season is the other stress. From June through September the ground around Lehigh Acres and Alva is saturated and the water table rises, so the drain field has nowhere to send water. Symptoms show up in the wet season first: drains slow after a storm, a soggy patch appears over the field. During and right after heavy rain, cut water use. Keep roof runoff and irrigation off the drain field, never park or drive on it, and after a hurricane, wait for the yard to drain before using the system normally.

Signs the drain field is failing

• Every drain is slow, worst after rain or laundry.
• Gurgling at toilets and tubs.
• Sewage odor outside, strongest over the field.
• Bright green, spongy grass over the field, or standing water there in the dry season.
• Sewage in the lowest fixture, usually a tub or shower.
• A tank that refills right after pumping. Water is coming back from a field that cannot take it.
• The pump alarm on a mound system.

A field showing these signs is a septic contractor’s call, and usually a permitted repair.

Finding the tank, and who works on what

To find the tank, start at the cleanout where the main drain leaves the house and walk straight out; the tank is usually in line with it. The lids are concrete or green plastic, two or three of them, at grade or up to a foot below it. A probe rod finds the edges, and the health department’s permit file for the house has an as-built drawing with the tank and field marked. Never step on a lid you have not checked; old concrete lids collapse, and a tank is deep enough to drown in. Keep the lids secured, and consider risers at the next pumping so they sit at grade.

The line between the two is the tank inlet. A plumber handles everything from the fixtures to that point: slow drains, a clogged line between the house and the tank, a camera inspection of that line, backups inside the house, cleanouts, and the plumbing that caused the trouble, like the running toilet that flooded the field. Van Franey clears and inspects the drain lines to the tank. Pumping the tank, repairing or replacing the drain field, and permitting a new system are a septic contractor’s work under a separate state license, and we refer you to one.

When drains are slow on a septic home, the first question is always whether the tank is full. If it was pumped recently and the drains are still slow, the line between the house and the tank is the suspect, and that is us. If the tank is full to the lid and the field is soggy, that is the septic contractor.

If you are not sure which side of that line your problem is on, send us what you are seeing and when it started. We can usually tell from the description.